Yale study: Autism might show up by six months

Published 12:01 am, Wednesday, February 6, 2013

At this tender age, children who would eventually be diagnosed with autism were already paying less attention to people and their activities than typically developing babies, according to the research spearheaded by Katarzyna Chawarska, associate professor at the Yale Child Study Center.

The report was published in the latest issue of "Biological Psychiatry."

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of developmental disabilities that can adversely affect communication, behavior and other areas of development. Chawarska said the conventional wisdom is that signs of autism don't emerge until a child's second year of life. If they do appear earlier than that, professionals might be able to intervene at a point in brain development when they can make more of an impact.

"This kind of study might help us identify treatment targets much earlier in development than we could have expected," Chawarska said.

For their research, the Yale team studied 67 infants at high risk for developing autism (due to a family member with the condition) and 50 low-risk babies.

They were shown a three-minute video depicting a woman engaging in several activities, such as making a sandwich or looking at toys. During the sandwich-making, the actress in the video would try to engage the babies by making contact and talking to them.

"We wanted to simulate real life, to some extent," Chawarska said.

Chawarska and the other researchers monitored how often the babies looked at the toys, the woman, her eyes and her mouth.

Compared with the control group, the infants who would later be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders looked less at the scene in the video and, when they did pay attention, spent less time looking at the woman's face.

The research project is still ongoing, and Chawarska said she hopes to test babies at even younger ages to see if autism symptoms are visible earlier than 6 months.

She said the project is looking to enroll new babies. Those who are interested can call Amy Margolis at 203-785-6237.